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The life science industry is implementing IoT to improve the supply chain and clinical development.

FREMONT, CA: The digitalization of the processes and information in the value chain and the rising demand for the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the pharma business. However, IoT is still in the initial phase of its adoption in the life science sector. Today, the company is considering patent cliffs and decreasing R&D profitability, and during such time they are using smart gadgets and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication using the SMAC technologies.

Moreover, the initial suggestions about adopting IoT was very obvious because some of the technologies that present patient centricity-based mobility products that provide health monitoring and reporting, prescription adherence, and healthcare professionals (HCP). Although IoT is not rapidly transforming the patient experience, it has a dramatic effect in several business sectors, such as supply chain, R & D, and clinical development.

Irrespective of technologies like smart pills, new devices, connected inhalers, implanted devices, or wearables, the pharma industry is possibly transformational for the patient results and fortunes of the traditional pharma companies who are confronted with business model difficulties related to patent cliffs.

Furthermore, the top pharma companies worldwide are quickly adopting IoT advanced technologies in the manufacturing plants. 

The motive of these plants is to achieve optimization and enhance process efficiency. Earlier, various data formats were used for several procedures in the pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, and it made information access and translation difficult for achieving communication. The advancement in IoT will provide power to standardization in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant with the help of equipment, systems, and networks across the plant. Furthermore, the pharma companies can also use IoT so that they get access to real-time information and visibility of operations through the entire assembling process.

The life science industry has become more reactive than proactive in applying innovative technologies, especially with its restricted guidelines and space complexities. Therefore, the faults in R&D productivity, compliance non-adherence, increasing expectations of the stakeholders to increase the efficiency of drugs, increasing expenditure, and numerous patents getting expired have squeezed the pharma companies.

Therefore, some companies have already started to adopt the IoT to empower the end-to-end digital integration in the supply chain. Like an organ in a chip, the IoT-based smart gadgets allow the companies to include real-life diagnostic situations. The productivity of R&D can also increase with the help of big data analytics and cognitive systems.

See also: Top IoT Companies